Professor Karavanić (FFZG) held a lecture "The search for early religiosity through archaeological and paleoanthropological findings"

On Tuesday, December 17, 2024, prof. Ivor Karavanić, PhD, from the Department of Archeology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb held a guest lecture "The search for early religiosity through archaeological and paleoanthropological findings" at our University.

Prof. Hrvoje Štefančić, PhD, addressed the audience on behalf of CUC, who pointed out that this type of lecture is extremely important for the further development of awareness and understanding of the relationship between religion and science, and that it has an additional important dimension of the beginning of cooperation between the Center for the Study of the Relationship between Science and Religion (Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Sciences, University of Zagreb) and the Center for fundamental issues in science (Catholic University of Croatia).
 

Head of the Center for the Study of the Relationship between Science and Religion, Assoc. Petar Tomev Mitrikeski, PhD, B.Sc. Eng. he briefly presented the work of the Center, expressed his satisfaction with the cooperation achieved and invited all those present to follow all the news and announcements of new lectures and events at the official website.

Asst. prof. Darko Periša, PhD, from the University Department of History briefly introduced prof. Ivor Karavanić, PhD, who then gave a lecture about the early beginnings of religion, which are tens of thousands of years away from historical written sources.

Using modern methods, we focus on the study of archaeological and paleoanthropological finds. Findings that point to symbolic behavior in the Lower Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) are very scarce. In the Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthals, for the first time in the history of the human race, buried their dead and showed certain forms of symbolic and perhaps religious behavior. The famous artistic creations (painted caves, making figurines) of the early modern man of the Upper Paleolithic (Homo sapiens sapiens) are most often associated with religion. Early religiosity and the emergence of religion are not only important for the spirituality of individuals or communities, but have a strong positive role in the functioning of human societies.